[Bakkasan]

Swap the cables if you wear them upside down, no problems. And the comply tips to me sound far better than any of the stock tips.

 

[Maxiuta]

Here is my story. I've never been an audiophile, but nevertheless loved listening to music (think this is genetic cuz my dad is a real audiophyle...hundreds of vynils with great stuff like Deep Purple, Pink Floyd etc.). About an year ago got my hands on a neckband sennheiser (don't recall the product name). Loved the clear sound and fell in love with sennheiser sound. Then bought a pair of cx300...my first in-ear headphones. After I lost them bought cx380. Some days ago damaged them (no sound in the left earphone). After reading some reviews on this forum made my mind to buy sennheiser ie8. Bought them today.
 The out-of-box sound scared me a little, but after about one hour of listening to them noticed a good change.
 So here is the question. How many hours of burn-in is required for them? Are my new headphones a good choice? I listen house, electro-house and minima musicl.
 Thank you in advance for all your replies

 

[tzm]

 
Hey Max, I just recently got a pair of IE8s as well, and have been going through what you've seen.
 
My take on this is that being a dynamic driver IEM, the IE8 is very sensitive to the shape/length of the sound chamber that is formed by the IEM's position in your ear and your individual ear canals.  What I found was that in playing with different tips, I get dramatically different sounds, but the thing to keep in mind is that the driver itself is still responding to frequency inputs in the same way regardless... i.e. the IEM is what it is, and the tips are acting like a sort of physical EQ.
 
My personal preference for music is a strong, clear base overlayed with sparkly feeling highs that lend detail to the music.  I also have a strong preference for expansive soundstages as opposed to intimate settings.
 
Ultimately, I found I best achieved this by switching to Sony Hybrid tips which got me closest to the feel I was looking for, and then enhancing the treble slightly with external EQ.  Having done this, yesterday I caught myself looking around several times while working because elements of the songs I was listening too were tricking me into thinking I was hearing sounds around me.
 
 
Having checked the IEMs themselves with the included silicone, foam, and sony hybrid tips I can clearly hear the IE8 producing frequencies as follows:
 
10 Hz - I can feel/hear it, but it's so low pitched and low in volume that it's not a major part of the music.
20 Hz - The lowest frequency that is audible to the point it would contribute to the music, but is somewhat rolled off volumewise from the typical volume at higher frequencies.
30 Hz - the low end of the dominant frequency range (i.e. the frequency below which the volume appears to fall off)
14000 Hz - the high end of the dominant frequency range
17000 Hz - the highest frequency that "participates" in the music in the sense that you can hear it still at normal volumes, but it's now rolled off compared to the dominant frequency range.
20000 Hz - the highest frequency where I can "hear/feel" anything at all by turning the volume up (this was as high as my test software went... not sure if I could "feel" anything beyond that or not otherwise.
 
 
What this test implied to me was that the IEMS were producing low frequencies at sufficient volume, but that some of the sparkle generated by very high frequencies and transient frequencies created by interference were being blanketed out...  EQing the high end allows them to bring the wow factor back for me.
 
 
 
I've decided that ultimately, my approach to headphones needs to be to find the hardware that gets me the features I'm looking for that are hard to get with software tweaks (soundstage/frequency competence), followed by a tip selection/wearing style that gets me close to the frequency response I'm looking for, finally followed by fine tuning of the frequency balance by tuning with EQ.  I used to think using an external EQ was "cheating" somehow, but in retrospect, everything I do from insertion depth, to tip selection, to sample compression is applying artificial EQ as well, so why not use your playback device to tweak the balance back where you like it?
 
 
So in a nutshell, don't sweat it too much if the IEMs sound a little dark to you to start... they're actually quite capable of delivering what I think you're looking for.
 
 
Now that I've got them tweaked how I like them, they sound like the bigger brother of my HD555s in that everything I hear through them sounds "epic" or "big".  Bass slams (but doesn't dominate... there's just an energy to the sound), highs sparkle, soundstage constantly tricks me into looking over my shoulder.
 
Best of luck with yours!
 
 
EDIT:  PS. to answer your original question about burn-in.  It's nearly impossible for me to say at what point I was happy, and how much of that was just brain burn-in, vs. incessant fiddling with tips/position, but I will say that after about 50 hours of cycled pink noise and another 24 hours of white noise they had settled for me to where they've more or less stayed.  They may have changed slightly in the last 100 hours of burn, but that could just as easily be psychosomatic.
 
 
Gah, EDIT 2:  To answer your question about the type of music... listening to Skrillex or Bassnectar through these makes me want to laugh like a child, and Owl City makes me smile.  I think you'll be very happy with them for electronic music and vocals across the board.

 

[lalman]

Lovely pair of IEMs!

 

[Dobrescu George]

that disks are magnets, they do click, because thei do hit the metal part that is on the carying box...

 

[Ince]

After about 2 weeks with my IE8 and I am starting to love them, I have given them time to burn and have noticed that the bass has tightend and the trebles have opened up.
 
One of the biggest problem for the IE8 is Isolation and fit,  I have to wear the ear pieces on opposite sides, right on the left side.....   I find that this way it fits better and  gives better isolation as well.

 

[alphaman]

Quote:

After about 2 weeks with my IE8 and I am starting to love them, I have given them time to burn and have noticed that the bass has tightend and the trebles have opened up.
 
One of the biggest problem for the IE8 is Isolation and fit,  I have to wear the ear pieces on opposite sides, right on the left side.....   I find that this way it fits better and  gives better isolation as well.

In my use, 300+ hrs burn-in time before the '8s optimize. 
Best tip for sonics and iso ... new Comply TS-500 ('spherical'), and old Comply T-500. BUT ... Comply foams are too $$ and the memory foam needs to be molded+held-in (a chore!). A double flange silicone type from Teclast R8 ("free" IEMs with DAP purchase) are overall best. Maybe similar to Sensorcom ??
Custom tips are ideal for serious IE8 use. 
Or get another IEM ... maybe Sony EX1000 or JVC FX700 ... both are putatively an improvement over IE8 -- sonically, anyway (but not necess. WRT iso/fit or $$/value).  Senn hasn't released a high-end IEM for several years. I'm sure engineers and decision-makers at Senn are reading our posts ... so when are the new IE9's coming out, guys?!
 
 

 

[tdogzthmn]

Does anyone here own an HD600 and the IE8?  I very much enjoy the HD600 and its sound signature which has me wondering if any of that translates to the IE8.  I am by no means a bass lover which is why I prefer the HD600's more neutral sound to that of the more colored and bottom heavy HD650. 

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Does anyone here own an HD600 and the IE8?  I very much enjoy the HD600 and its sound signature which has me wondering if any of that translates to the IE8.  I am by no means a bass lover which is why I prefer the HD600's more neutral sound to that of the more colored and bottom heavy HD650. 

Sorry, IE8 is closer to the HD650 than HD600.  I like HD600 more, and sold my HD650 and IE8 a long time ago.
 

 

[NullZero]

Quote:

Does anyone here own an HD600 and the IE8?  I very much enjoy the HD600 and its sound signature which has me wondering if any of that translates to the IE8.  I am by no means a bass lover which is why I prefer the HD600's more neutral sound to that of the more colored and bottom heavy HD650. 

I have both:- to me the IE8's are more dark than the HD600 - as expected.  The IE8's mid/treble is recessed compared to the HD600, and there is more bass to the signature.  The IE8's can exert more pressure (through bass) than the HD600's.  The HD600 sounds different depending on where you place them in comparison your ear hole (I find).
 

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

I have both:- to me the IE8's are more dark than the HD600 - as expected.  The IE8's mid/treble is recessed compared to the HD600, and there is more bass to the signature.  The IE8's can exert more pressure (through bass) than the HD600's.  The HD600 sounds different depending on where you place them in comparison your ear hole (I find).
 

Exactly.
 

 

[Technocrafts]

Quote:

Does anyone here own an HD600 and the IE8?  I very much enjoy the HD600 and its sound signature which has me wondering if any of that translates to the IE8.  I am by no means a bass lover which is why I prefer the HD600's more neutral sound to that of the more colored and bottom heavy HD650. 

I own both, IMHO the difference between the IE-8 and HD-600 is day and night, on the expense of the IE-8. They don't even come close to the resolution ad details in sound what the big cans produce, not to mention the awesome high extension, mile wide sound stage, very detailed but not overwhelming bass. The 600s practically pull your music apart, from a well produced album you can feel the location of various sound sources and instruments. While the IE-8 can sure hold their own, they sound like a cheap pair of CX-300 in comparison to the HD-600.

 

[Maxiuta]

@ tzm
thank you for your reply. Minimal sounds really great. Not so much burn-in time, but anyways can hear the difference. Got a strange feeling that music from my ipod nano sounds better than from my Sony Vaio. Any sugestions about it? No eq used in both cases. 

 

[tzm]

If you're stuck with "physical" eq, it appears that the IE8s respond like this:
 
Enhances Bass ------------------------------------------- Enhances Treble
<-- better seal ----------------------------------------------- less seal --> 
<-- denser eartip material-----------------lighter eartip material (silicone) -->
<-- deeper insertion   --------------------------------  shallow insertion  -->
<-- smaller tip aperture ------------------------------  wider tip aperture -->
 
 
If you can't tune them with the above physical means, your ears might just not be a good match without some other means to balance the frequency response to what you're looking for.  All I can say is that I've found a sweet spot with the Sony hybrid tips and mild eq of the treble that give me exactly the sound signature I was looking for...
 
(Punchy, deep but not dominant bass)
(Sparkly trebles, with just enough roll-off to prevent fatigue/pain)
 
Even with the mid-bass cleared up, I don't find the IE8 as fast at dealing with congested sounds in the midrange as my HF2s, but in terms of pure listening pleasure it crushes my HF2, HD555, and HFI 780 for balance, power, and sparkle.  The IE8 has an "epicness" to the sound that is really addictive.

 

[Slides]

Can the IE8's be driven directly from an mp3 player (Zune) without major loss of SQ?